Joanne's long walks: Road to Home 2023 Day 7: Thérouanne

C'est Dieu qui conduisait à Rome,

Mettant un bourdon dans sa main,

Ce saint qui ne fut qu'un pauvre homme,

Hirondelle de grand chemin...

- Germain Nouveau, Humilité

Today's stage of the Via Francigena brought me to the birthplace of Saint Benoît-Joseph Labre, patron saint of the poor, the "crazy" and the homeless. Eldest of 15 children in a fairly well-off family, he was destined for the church from an early age, but his parents wanted him to be a curate, rather than a monk. Benoît-Joseph felt a calling to the monastic life and asked to be admitted to a monastery at the age of only 16. After being rejected by various orders, he was finally admitted by the Trappist monks, but soon changed his mind and realised that his true calling was to be a pilgrim for life.

At the age of 21 he began travelling the pilgrimage routes of Europe, and is estimated to have walked 30,000 kilometes before "retiring" to live as a beggar on the streets of Rome, sleeping rough amid the ruins of the Colosseum. Having neglected his health all his life, he passed away in 1783 at the age of only 35.

Today Saint Benoît would be treated as just another crazy street person, not canonised. He and his wandering life were on my mind as I left Thérouanne in the company of Henry and Haidee. The morning was misty and damp, but the threatened rain was not as serious as prophesied; merely a refreshing sprinkle.

In "Allée du Criquet" in the village of Liettres, we learned that cricket is not actually a British game at all, but was invented by the ancient Gauls, and is documented as being played in Liettres in 1478!

We then passed a team of workers engaged in the daunting task of chopping enough firewood to heat a castle, the Château de Liettres.

But the highlight of today's walk was discovering the vending machine system at La Ferme Gotrand in the hamlet of Longhem.

As I perused the selection of potatoes, leeks, onions, lettuces and endives available for sale, a face appeared on the other side of the machine and someone added a dozen eggs!

Unfortunately I could not carry either a ten kg sack of potatoes or a dozen eggs, so I left the distributeur behind to continue on my way. Just outside we met the farmer coming over with fresh lettuces to add to the machine. An excellent system, allowing the farming family to get on with their work instead of serving customers, and shoppers to buy fresh locally grown produce at any time of day or night!

It was shortly after this that we came across our first terril or slag heap, a relic of the region's coal-mining past. These pyramidal landforms were once considered unsightly, but are now valued as heritage sites, and protected as nature reserves where pioneering tree species flourish despite the small amount of organic matter in the slag. The trail continued along a former railway line, over which the trees had grown together to form a series of arches.

We took a lunch break on the steps outside the church in Auchy-au-Bois before proceeding to Amettes, my destination for the day. Henry and Haidee had booked accommodation further down the trail in Burbure, where they were to meet Laurie, who was feeling under the weather and had arranged for a lift, and Marjorie, who took the lift part of the way so she could walk a shorter distance.

We said goodbye outside the birthplace and childhood home of Saint Benoît Labre, which is left open so visitors can just wander in and look around. As soon as Henry and Haidee had left, a large church group arrived, all local people from the region of Pas-de-Calais, with a number of young priests. They were curious about my walk, so we stood chatting for some time and took a group photo together!

I learned more about Saint Benoît Labre in the village church, where key incidents in his life were illustrated in cartoons.

The church preserves the straw mattress upon which Saint Benoît died - he appears to have had a proper bed at least for the last night of his life - as well as a death mask cast 24 hours after he passed away, and one of the shoes he was wearing at the time!

Having completed my visit of the holy sites of Amettes, I sought out my accommodations at La Ferme des 2 Tilleuls, a chambre d'hote establishment which is open to tourists but also has a couple of hostel-style rooms reserved only for pilgrims.

Here I will be sharing a room with Marie-Laure, whom I first met over dinner in the convent at Wisques, and a friend who is joining her this evening to walk tomorrow. In the other room is Mick from Newcastle.

I also encountered two old friends here: Massimo and Alessio, with whom I walked in southern Italy in 2021, immortalised in their raingear in a photo on the wall!

Marie-Laure's friend will be bringing a casserole for dinner and they have invited me to partake of that, and I also have plenty of supplies from the supermarket in Thérouanne, as tomorrow will be the dreaded Sunday in France, and any shops we may come across will certainly be shut!